The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science's Strangest Phenomenon by Brian Clegg

Author:Brian Clegg [Clegg, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780312555306
Amazon: 031255530X
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2009-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.6. The spaceship speeds away.

To keep things really simple, we’re going to measure time in years and distance in light-years (i.e., the distance light travels in a year—around 5,870,000,000,000 miles). That means for each year of time that passes, light has traveled one light-year. So the line representing a beam of light would be at 45 degrees, moving exactly the same distance along each axis as it progresses.

The line that represents the spaceship must always be above that of the light beam on the diagram. If it were below, it would be covering more distance in any amount of time than light was—it would be traveling faster than light.

Now, let’s think about the passage of time as far as the spaceship pilot is concerned. What does an object that’s not moving look like from her viewpoint? Remember, for the observer on the Earth, an object right next to him that isn’t moving must stick with him, moving up the vertical axis as time passes. The vertical time axis, for the observer on the Earth, is the same line as the arrow of a nonmoving object. For the pilot, similarly, an object that doesn’t move must stay with her—it has to move up the same line as her. And here again, the time axis as far as the pilot is concerned, is the same as the line along which there is no movement from her viewpoint—the line of her movement. Sitting on the Earth with the observer, we plot the pilot’s time axis as the line of her movement, quite different from the earthbound observer’s own vertical time axis.

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